Teaching a Stanford Cloud Course with Aditya Saligrama

On this week’s episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey  is joined by Stanford computer science student Aditya Saligrama, who recently taught a Stanford course on cloud infrastructure. Aditya shares his unique perspective on various topics, including how higher education approaches teaching computer science in a rapidly evolving landscape, why he chose cloud security to begin with instead of tacking it on at the end, and what his plans are for the rest of school and beyond. Corey and Aditya lament the lack of real-world skills taught by universities. Aditya shares with the audience just how much work goes into being an effective undergraduate-level teacher while being an undergraduate student himself. 

Show Highlights: 

(00:00) - Introduction
(01:57) - Exploring CS40: cloud infrastructure and scalable application deployment
(03:46) - The evolution of computer science education
(05:09) - Bridging the gap between academia and industry
(09:05) - Aditya's journey into security and cloud infrastructure
(13:09) - The Stanford security clinic: red teaming for startups
(14:09) - Internship insights and cloudflare's upcoming role
(16:06) - The challenge of cloud account management for students
(17:59) - Improving cloud education and accessibility
(22:10) - The technical and educational challenges of CS40
(29:29) - Final thoughts and where to find Aditya

About Aditya Saligrama:

Aditya Saligrama is an undergraduate and graduate student at Stanford University studying computer science, focusing on systems and security. In the Winter of 2024, Aditya taught CS 40 (Cloud Infrastructure and Scalable Application Deployment) at Stanford, the first university course ever to teach the fundamentals of deploying apps on the cloud hands-on using infrastructure as code. Aditya also leads the Applied Cyber student group at Stanford, winning first place in a national cyber defense competition in 2023 and second place in a global penetration testing competition in 2024, and advises early-stage startups on their security needs and posture through the Stanford Security Clinic. Aditya enjoys hiking, photography, and ping pong in his free time.

Links referenced:

Aditya’s Twitter: @saligrama_a

Aditya’s Website: https://saligrama.io

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